President Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa fired salvos at Capital Maharaja Group Chairman Kili Rajamahendran (Maharaja) and dissident media on Friday (20) warning that he knew how to “teach them a lesson if necessary”.

In his latest instalment of ගම සමග පිළිසඳර (Conversation with the village) in Walpane on Friday, the President revealed parts of his old self, his voice growing shriller as he issued dire warnings to media personnel and organizations he said were hell bent on destroying his government.

Issuing a clear broadside against Rajamahendran, President Rajapaksa claimed that some media proprietors were trying to control governments and the rulers.

“There are no kings in our country and no Maharajas. These mafias want to control governments and rulers. That’s not going to work with me. If necessary, I know how to teach them a lesson,” the Head of State threatened to a smattering of applause from the crowd.

“During 14 months of rule, I have never exerted any pressure on any media institution. But if they try to abuse (media freedom) there are laws to deal with that. There are ways to do it and I will execute those methods,” President Rajapaksa charged.

The attack on Capital Maharaja group and its chairman was particularly chilling because the Sirasa Network was repeatedly targeted when the Rajapaksa government was last in power from 2005-2015. The worst attack took place on 6^th January 2009 when Sirasa’s state of the art studio in Depanama Pannipitiya was torched by a group of 20 armed men. Investigators discovered that the attackers had also attempted to explode a claymore mine inside the studio which would have caused the loss of life. The attack on the Sirasa studio followed months of public threats against the network by then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Ministry of Defence accusing the broadcaster of being pro-LTTE. In a televised interview on ITN three months after the attack on the network, Defence Secretary Rajapaksa accused Sirasa of setting its own studio on fire to bring the government into disrepute and fraudulently claim insurance for equipment. In the same tv appearance, Gotabaya Rajapaksa accused Sirasa of being ‘the voice of the Tigers’. [“සිරස තමයි කොටි හඬ – Watch 2009 interview:

Three days after the attack on Sirasa, Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge was murdered on his way to work. Wickrematunge’s last public appearance was at the Sirasa studios at dawn on January 6, 2009 hours after attack. Wickrematunge called the attack an ‘act of terrorism’.

During his conversation with the village at Walpane on Friday it was apparent that the President was furious that his Government was being accused of providing patronage to those who were destroying the environment. He called reports that there was mass scale deforestation taking place all over the country “fake news”. Even media organizations faithful to his government who had bought into the “jathika chinthana” or national thought” was accusing his government of felling trees, he complained bitterly.

There teams of media saboteurs even inside these friendly organizations, he claimed.

“Even the media that is in line with the “jathika chinthanaya” (national thought) spreads false propaganda that Kumbuk trees have been cut down. I looked into this. Inside these organizations there are media personnel who worked against us when we were fighting the war. The same people are involved in this (fake news about environmental destruction) again. Teams have crept in (to these institutions) to publicize these things. The same groups that worked against the war effort have now resurfaced,” the President said.

“All this is false propaganda to deceive the people. Don’t be fooled by it. When a government that loves the country, loves our culture, protects our identity, preserves our indigenousness, protects our religion and has these policies, they will work to attack and destroy them,” he urged.

Full video of President Rajapaksa’s remarks: [Threats against the media commences at 5.05]

Here is a transcript of President Rajapaksa’s full comments about the media:

 මාධ්‍ය නිදහස කියන්නේ මාධ්‍ය ආයතනය අයිති මිනිහගේ නිදහස නෙමෙයි නේ. මාධ්‍ය ආයතනය අයිතිකාරයට ඕන විදිහටරට දුවන්න හදනවනම් ඒක මාෆියාවක්. ඒකයි වෙන්නේ. අපේ රටේ රජවරුත් නෑ, මහාරාජාලත් නෑ. මහාරාජාල හිටියේඉන්දියාවේ. මේ මාෆියා රජයවල් පාලකයන් පාලනය කරන්න හදනවා. ඒවා මාත් එක්ක බෑ. මම දන්නවා ඒවාට පාඩම්උගන්නන්න ඕන නම් උගන්නන විදිහත් මම දන්නවා. මම මාධ්‍ය නිදහස දීල තියෙනවා. දැන් මාස 14ක් මම පාලනය කළාකිසිම මාධ්‍යකට කිසිම බලපෑමක් කරලා නෑ. හැබැයි ඒ අය මේක වැරදියට පාවිච්චි කරන්න අවොත් එකටත් නීතිතියෙනවා. කරන්න පුළුවන් ක්‍රම තියෙනවා. ඒවා මම ක්‍රියාත්මක කරනවා. ඒ මාධ්‍ය පමණක් නෙමෙයි, ජාතික චින්තනයේඉන්න මාධ්‍යයෙත් මේ කුඹුක් ගස් කැපුවා කියල බොරු ප්‍රචාර දාල තිබ්බා. මම හොයල බැලුවා කවුද. මේවා යේ ඉන්නවාඅපි යුද්ධේ කාලේ ඔය මාධ්‍ය තමයි අපිට විරුද්ධ ව වැඩ කලේ. ඒ අයම තමයි දැන්. කණ්ඩායමක් රිංගගෙන මේවාප්‍රචාරය කරනවා. ඕව බැලුවම ඕව තමයි හාමුදුරුවනේ මේ එන්නේ. ඒ කාලේ යුද්ධේ කරන කාලේ යුද්ධය කරනවටවිරුද්ධව වැඩ කරන කණ්ඩායම් ම තමයි දැන් ආපහු නැගිටලා.

මේවා ඒගොල්ලෝ දැක්කේ නෑ ඒ කාලේ, ඇයි ඒගොල්ලන්ට අවශ්‍ය රජයවල් නේ බිහි කරගෙන තිබ්බේ. ඒ කාලේ මේවාමුකුත් නෑ හරියට මම ඇවිල්ල මේ කැලා කපුවා වගේ. ජනතාව මුලා කරන්න බොරු ප්‍රචාර ගෙනියනවා. ඒවාට රැවටෙන්නඑපා. මේවා රටට ආදරේ, අපේ සංස්කෘතියට ආදරේ කරන, අපේකම රකින, දේශීයත්වය රකින, ආගම රකින, ප්‍රතිපත්තිතියෙන රජයක් ආවම, මේවට පහර ගහනවා මේවා නැති කරන්න.මේවායෙන් ප්‍රවේසම් වෙන්නට ඕන.

Media freedom does not mean the freedom of the person who owns the media institution. If the owners of media institutions try to run the country as they want, then that is a mafia. That’s what happens. In our country there are no kings and no Maharajas. The Maharajas were in India. These mafias want to control governments and rulers. That’s not going to work with me. If necessary, I know how to teach them a lesson.

During 14 months of rule, I have never exerted any pressure on any media institution. But if they try to abuse (media freedom) there are laws to deal with that. There are ways to do it and I will execute those methods.

It is not only them (Maharaja). Even the media that is inline with the “jathika chinthanaya” (national thought) spreads false propaganda that

Kumbuk trees have been cut down. I looked into this. Inside these organisations there are media personnel who worked against us when we were fighting the war. The same people are involved in this (fake news about environmental destruction) again. Teams have crept in (to “jathika chinthana” media institutions) to publicise these things. [Addresses monks] When you see all this, you know this is what is coming Hamuduruwane. The same groups that worked against the war effort have now resurfaced.

[Reads out detailed list about deforestation from 2015-2019]

These people never saw all that because at that time they had the government they wanted in power. It is as if all this time there was nothing and as soon as I came (to power) deforestation began. All this is false propaganda to deceive the people. Don’t be fooled by it. When a government that loves the country, loves our culture, protects our identity, preserves our indigenousness, protects our religion and has these policies, they will work to attack and destroy them. We have to be careful of these moves.